Panoramic video typically involves high resolution footage to capture a large field of view (FOV) (i.e., an entire 360 degree field of view). Streaming panoramic video involves a high bitrate data transfer. Typical networks, like the Internet, have limited streaming bandwidth. Cellular or wireless networks also typically have limited bandwidth. Streaming high bitrate video over 3G/4G/LTE networks consumes a large amount of data. In conventional panoramic video playback, on the display side, the user sees only a small part of the panoramic image at one time. The small part of the panoramic image that the user sees is called a region of interest (ROI).
Conventional panoramic video playback typically streams the entire panoramic field of view (i.e., a 360 degree field of view). Streaming the entire panoramic field of view allows the region of interest to be changed in response to the user moving his or her head. A change in region of interest needs to happen quickly (typically <20 ms) to avoid a noticeable delay on the display side. Longer delays tend to provide a poor user experience, and in many cases trigger a sickness feeling.
Streaming video is becoming increasingly popular (i.e., video on demand). For video on demand, a central server provides content to multiple viewers. Generating panoramic video involves a large amount of processing. For video on demand with panoramic video there is an issue of the region of interest each user is viewing in addition to the timing issue of each video frame. Video on demand for panoramic video can overwhelm processing and bandwidth capabilities of a central server.
It would be desirable to implement broadcasting panoramic videos from one server to multiple endpoints.